Esmeralda’s back. Readers met this feisty widow as she fussed over her fellow citizens of a small southern town in Margaret Graham’s novel Mercy Me. Now in a delightful sequel, Esmeralda feels led to take on a new project.
A halfway house for female addicts finds itself in need of a responsible woman to move in and help out, and against her better judgment, Esmeralda volunteers. She knows nothing about drugs or about much of anything else these women have been through. But she knows when she’s being “led,” so she packs up her life, moves to the mountains, and becomes a housemother. There she meets women with lives she could never imagine, and she must navigate well outside her comfort zone. Soon enough, she learns how to love the unloved-and to accept their love in return.
Good Heavens is packed with hilarity, humanity, and good lessons. Graham once again has given readers a lovable and very human believer to accompany as she plods through alien territory with her Bible in hand.
From the Back Cover
Esmeralda is a feisty, Southern, small-town widow who takes care of herself, her neighbors, and her friends. And she likes her life just the way it is.
But when a halfway house for female addicts finds itself in need of a responsible woman to move in and help out, against her better judgment, Esmeralda volunteers. She knows nothing about drugs or about much of anything else these women have been through. But she knows when she’s being “led,” so she packs up her life, moves to the mountains, and becomes a housemother.
There she meets women with lives she could never imagine, and she must navigate well outside her comfort zone. On top of this, the center’s fast-talking, well-educated director just won’t give the homespun ways and wisdom of Esmeralda a chance. Will Esmeralda be able to learn how to truly love the unloved-and sometimes unlovable-residents of the house? Or is it time to give up and move back home?
Praise for Margaret Graham’s writing
"Graham knows the South, church folks, and older women-all the makings for an authentic slice of modern small-town Southern life"--The Sate newspaper, Columbia, South Carolina
"Esmeralda’s sweetness and sass . . . will charm the socks off readers. Graham’s plotting is picture-perfect and peppered with hoots and hee-haws amid sobering situations. Her characters entertain with their foibles and educate with homespun charm"--Romantic Times